Slice
by Usemychopsticks
Summary: In the quiet aftermath of an ambush, Vortex teaches Swindle how to cut a mech open. The Combaticons have a unique view of team bonding.


Title: Slice

Summary: In the quiet aftermath of an ambush, Vortex teaches Swindle how to cut a mech open. The Combaticons have a unique view of team bonding.

Rating: T

Characters: Swindle, Vortex.

Warnings: Torture, mutilation. Bad guys being themselves.

Notes: Been the longest time since I've written any fanfiction. I figured it was time to fix that. I would like to think writing's improved a bit, as well as my characterization, or at least more definite in my head. Enjoy!

* * *

Sometimes Onslaught's plans work out well enough that the cleanup crew is left bored to the point of disobedience. Vortex wanders out from where he's supposed to be, and Swindle doesn't try calling him back; it never works. The Autobot straggler, a scout, walks clear into their line of vision; he's the only one. It's trivial to knock him down, more so to kill him, but Vortex has been getting itchy about slicing into a mech. This had been going on since joining the army on Earth, but no Autobot ever got caught long enough. It's good Megatron sent them to Cybertron for a bit.

"It's amazing how long you've held it in." Swindle thinks his teammate goes out and terrorizes the human population when he's bored, takes the small smears of red on his fingers sometimes as confirmation. He doesn't ask, doesn't care, and all of them are cagey when it comes to personal information anyways.

Vortex finishes disabling the scout's motor controls. "It's a skill," he says; laser scalpel flashing bright in the night.

The con mech forgets that the helicopter is not as sporadic as believed, he's read enough people, played the game long enough to tell redirections and manipulations. Vortex, whenever there was something he really wanted to hide, made a point to go terrorize an unfortunate con. It'd have Onslaught thinking him satisfied for a while and ignoring infrequent trips to the Space Bridge when the humans weren't enough. Onslaught, for all his smarts, has gotten used to the supposed mayhem without methodology that everyone expects from Vortex. The mech is all strategy and facts, not as versed as Swindle is in people.

Vortex takes his time, yet is efficient. He has panels open and wires bared in seconds, and it is then that Swindle notices that the scout has some good hardware. Good enough for a neutral to overpay in needy desperation. He'd tell him to wait, but Vortex hates being interrupted, and isn't above threatening teammates when he isn't getting what he wants. None of them stand for it, but Swindle and Vortex hate each other just a bit more than they do the others, so when the Jeep is asleep, if he's angry enough the copter will come in and take some of the itch out on him. He'd woken up last time to a pool of energon coming from his severed legs; he doesn't much want to try that again.

His teammate catches him looking though, seems to feel generous when he says, "You want some of him?"

"Yeah." Swindle walks over, gets a better look. "I want the couplings and the transformation cog."

"Do it yourself then." Vortex holds out the scalpel. It's a good long while before Swindle parses that he's not joking, isn't trying to mock him into provocation. "I'll show you."

"Just hurry up and cut them the frag off." Swindle's skill set it very defined, what Vortex has to teach isn't required.

"It's a good skill to have," Vortex says, and his next words are in a tone tells Swindle he'd better take the opportunity. He'll never be this nice again. "How the frag did you get half your merchandise then?"

"I get somebody to do it."

"Well this will save you money from that." He doesn't tell Vortex that he's racked up enough favors over the years that he doesn't need to pay. "Hurry up."

Swindle kneels down and takes the scalpel. The scout looks up at both of them with flashing eyes and an expression that says somewhere, inside, he's screaming. Swindle hovers over the wires, flashes of energon pumping through insides illuminating his face. It's a tangled mess, more so if he doesn't cut right. He looks at network traversing in and out of the transformation cog, and nearly grimaces.

Vortex leans close, and pushes his hand down. The slice is clean, but the aftermath isn't as he hits an energon tube hidden underneath, and Swindle is wiping bits of Autobot scout off his visor after. The job is half done though. Vortex's tone has no encouragement or ease in it. "See that wasn't hard."

"He's still alive." Swindle notices a shudder wrack the otherwise prone frame. Vortex shrugs, but Swindle get ups and kicks the mechs head, until he hears a snap and there's an unnatural twist in his head. Sounds of gears and tech he hadn't noticed before began winding down, the body turning grey. His teammate stares, and he explains. "It's less messy."

"Don't be such a petrorabbit."

The smaller mech goes and cuts the other bundle of wires connected to the transformation cog. He inspects it; it's in perfect shape. He does the same with the couplings, and discovers a few other things he takes underneath everything else. When he looks at the scout's chest cavity after a good quarter of it is empty, though sprayed a messy purple.

Vortex laughs. "It's a start," he says. "What'd I tell you?"

"I learned jack shit." Swindle spends enough time with the humans that he's picked up a few curses. "What was the point of that?"

"Think of it this way." His teammate sidles up and puts an arm around him. "It's team bonding, and now you know it ain't that hard. " Vortex pauses. "For what you do anyways, mine obviously takes a lot more than what you just did."

The arm around him is heavy and caging, Swindle shoves Vortex off, and snorts. Nothing in the realm of emotional distance has been shortened between them. "You realize you're just teaching me how to work better by myself."

"You going to tell Onslaught that?" Swindle doesn't respond. "I thought so."

Vortex lounges down by a rock, the air between them filling with the stench of dead Autobot, while they wait for the others to come. When Swindle reads him, it looks like the other doesn't want to kill him for once. He still probably does though.


End file.
